PowerPoint Proficiency in Physics Pedagogy : A cognitive perspective on teacher experience

Abstract: In this small-scale qualitative study we examine PowerPoint presentations using cognitive perspectives (such as the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, Arousal theory, and Dual Channel processing) to compare teacher experience with a theoretical background. By analyzing collected PowerPoint presentations and interviewing the experienced teachers that created them about their didactic choices, we are able to identify and focus on four aspects of multimedia learning: Pacing, Student Stimuli, Signaling and Redundancy. Although the teachers involved in the study do not reference the cognitive perspective explicitly, we find similarities and differences between the teachers' near-practice experience and the underlying cognitive theories, finding pedagogical value in both their complementary and contradictory natures. From this, we suggest that the principles of cognitive theories from a scientific basis are complemented and tempered by the flexibility of experience.